A few weeks ago I received a short note from "nightcrawler" he was sending
me his book and thanked me for how helpful my Thailand trip report was at http://www.sexwork.com/Thailand/contents.html
- even though my trip report was from 1999.

I received and started reading the book and in reading the first 100 pages (one-third)
it is fabulous. Very specific about different options and gogo clubs, writer
says has 25 years of experience in Thailand and favors like I did, Pattaya over
Bangkok. I was reading his section about the legal issues - special services
at entertainment places, the various prostitution laws etc and wondered hmm...
this is exactly what I said - then read the footnote listing and acknowledging
my site.

I am putting a recommendation of the book on top of my report - nothing that
much has changed but his details certainly are valuable to update my old reports.
The cost of the book is $21.95 and can be ordered via http://www.mayflypubs.com/book.php

Makes me want to return myself sometime, although can't afford now. The gals
are very inexpensive around $US35-70 for ALL NIGHT and "short time" less. Nice
hotels also are cheap in $US but the airfare and the 24 hour flight makes Canada
more practical for me! I also tend to prefer the tall, slender European gals
so common in Canada vs the short Asians. It would be even nicer to find gals
in Phoenix other than the high costs! Yet someday I would enjoy returning to
the "Land of Smiles"

Out of curiosity I did fast check on airfares Phoenix to Bangkok - my gosh in
1999 it was less than $1000 on Eve Air's Evergreen Deluxe with nice big seats
and lots of space in the front of the plane with stopover in Taipei. Now their
regular tiny seat coach fare is about $2600-2800 per Priceline etc.. Not sure
with my 6-2 body I want to stand being in a small coach seat that long. In 1999
my nice Evergreen Deluxe seat was only about $200 more than coach. But then
I went to the Eva Air site and priced a trip over Memorial Day weeks and Evergreen
Deluxe came out to "only" $1891 - still too expensive but odd is so much lower
than others are quoting although it might be seasonal difference since we are
now in high season with their best weather and I used a January date on Priceline..

August 2006 Update:
Thailand Child Prostitution and Trafficking - International Justice Mission
(IJM) - BIll Gates Support
First the IJM said they were combating child prostitution. When it became apparent
to everyone that child prostitutes are quite rare, they jumped on this trafficking
bandwagon. Once it becomes obvious that sex slaves are even less common than
child prostitutes, what will be their next excuse to get grant money from the
US government?

The girls unfurl a banner with a photo of Burmese sex workers being abducted
from Thai brothels to illustrate that one of the organizations (the International
Justice Mission, or IJM) Bill and Melinda have aligned themselves with is bad
news. Khartini Slamah, a Malaysian transsexual activist, elbows past the press
and says, "You're dumping your money in the wrong place" upon which Bill and
Melinda are whooshed away, all in under two minutes.

To be fair, the Gates have given money to some awesome sex-worker organizations
in India, but the IJM is described by Andrew Hunter from the Asian Pacific Network
of Sex Workers as "rabidly fundamentalist." He talks about the "rescue and repatriation"
tactics of the IJM. After kidnapping sex workers with the help of the local
constabulary, they incarcerate them, then force them back to their native countries,
one of which is Burma, a military state that a lot of women leave expressly
because it's a military state. Sometimes they just plop the women somewhere
halfway and they are left with the dangerous and expensive task of returning
themselves. This is all done under the auspices of anti-trafficking (oddly,
using the same methods as traffickers), though many of these sex workers are
not trafficked.

Source: Woodhullfoundation mailing
list

Lets look at this common attack:
They say,
"In countries such as Thailand, child sexual exploitation builds on a long-standing
and vast prostitution industry, and thrives where law enforcement is weak or
corrupt. That sex with young teens is not a strong taboo in some Asian cultures
makes fighting the problem even more difficult."

Let's see. "Young girls working in local brothels bringing in family income"
has been for centuries normal and often honored by the monks in the local communities.
But now its called "child exploitation" by Western moralists trying to impose
their values on Thai culture. They need to "fight the problem" that its not
a strong taboo in the culture. Maybe the "problem" is the Western moralists
trying to impose their morality on a Buddhist culture that doesn't accept their
sex negative attitudes. Much of this is Christian fundamentalist based - ignoring
that in biblical times an arranged marriage at 12-13 yrs old based on a family
deal was the accepted norm. Today puberty is reached earlier and now its child
sexual exploitation?

Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, B.E. 2539 (1996) passed due
to Western morality pressure making prostitution illegal but it did not revoke
The Entertainment Places Act of 1966 that exempts special services at Entertainment
Places which is all the gogo bars, massages places etc where Westerners usually
go. They protected the vast amount of income going to adult women to help support
their children, their parents and Grandparents often in poverty in rural Thailand
by making the vast consenting adult "prostitution" businesses open to foreign
visitors legally bringing in millions of dollars/baht to support usually impoverished
women and their children.

As a Western visitor the child thing is totally mind blowing to me. With severe
penalties for owners of Entertainment Places to hire them and when I was there
I didn't see any children as far as I know. I was active on many Thai sex tourist
boards and I never read a word about anyone seeking under aged girls. Many guys
wanted to be sure to avoid accidentally being picked up by one. The advice is
to avoid the street or beach gals that solicit you and stay with the Entertainment
Places where the owners risk prison and huge fines if they hire anyone under
aged.

It is not surprising that the "corrupt" Thai police don't go out busting the
local usually rural Thai brothels which few foreigners would ever find. Why
enforce a law forced on a culture by outside moralists against what has for
centuries been a normal part of Thai culture just to please another foreign
culture that has no business imposing its morality on the Thai people in the
first place.

COPYRIGHTED 1999-2002 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - MAY BE REPRINTED OR QUOTED FROM
ONLY IF CREDIT IS GIVEN Sexwork.com., and/or show link to page where material
was quoted if you are getting it from our website. I request a note where it
was quoted or republished or if reprinted a copy of the publication. I hope
the information is helpful to many, but want to be sure it is properly credited
as I try and do for all material I use.

I have divided this report into two sections. The first section includes
a great deal of research regarding Thailand, its culture, attitudes toward sexwork
and tourist information on Bangkok, Pattaya and other cities. If you strongly
disagree with any of the research or want to express your feelings let me know
and I may include your comments. This is especially true if you are Thai or
a more frequent traveler to Thailand as this report is based on my research
but only as a first time visitor to the Kingdom in 1999.

The second section is my travelogue detailing my experiences as a first time
new visitor, based on my particular interests which is intimate sensuality and
caring for people not just the typical raw sex interests of some visitors to
Thailand's adult entertainment industry. I even share my bumbling mistakes
as a first time tourist in hopes such problems might of interest and avoided
by others!

NOTE: I am not promoting any form of sex tourism, and have absolutely no
financial interest in nor do I benefit financially in any way as the result
of my research. Note that prostitution is not legal in Thailand (But "special
services" and having girlfriends is). I do not promote any non-legal activities
and respect those Thai's that resent their beautiful country being thought of
as a sex tourist attraction. There are many wonderful other activities
in Thailand and many Thai women have absolutely no interest in sexwork. I also
abhor child prostitution which is simply not usually found in the tourist areas.
But I discuss all of these issues quoting from many sources FROM WITHIN THAILAND.

BANGKOK, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Thai police are clamping down on lone women with
a law to keep them from entering bars unless accompanied by a man, starting
with Valentine's Day.

The clampdown comes amid a controversial social order campaign by the government
of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and has angered women's rights activists
who say the law is outdated and impossible to implement fairly.

Police in the Thai capital Bangkok have sent a letter to owners of entertainment
venues setting out existing regulations and reactivating a 40-year-old law aimed
at curbing prostitution.

"We're looking on a case-by-case basis, but at some bars and discos, if we think
something will happen with women by themselves, we'll give a warning," police
spokesman Pongsapat Pongcharoen told Reuters.

"We're looking at the bars which have women going in to get men customers and
going out to have sex," he said.

Dave notes: "Special Services" by employees of "Entertainment Places" are exempt
from the prostitution law. But a women coming into a bar not working for the
bar of strip club is not covered by the prostitution exemption. They has been
lots of talk about crackdowns as the "social order" campaign of the new PM is
very controversial and probably due to Western pressure again to impose Western
morality on a far different culture where sexuality in Buddhism is just normal
and natural.. not the sin of Christian traditions in the West (that have no
true biblical basis).

Other comments:
Women in bars alone means competition (and no bar fine) for the employees of
the bar. That all by itself has been enough to cause all sorts of problems.
There are lots of bars/lounges/beer gardens that encourage single women/free
lancers to lounge around...

Closing times as of mid January were still 2 AM. These closing times apply
to all bars all over Bangkok, and not just those around the sex industry. There
are policing problems surrounding late night bar closing times that could also
be part of the thinking behind the earlier closing times.

Re the imposition of western views of morality generally, I would say
the stronger influence would be more local views on this from Singapore and
Malaysia...

There is a clear discomfort with some of the "indiscreet" farang oriented
bars. As Thailand moves more into the big leagues of tourism, the image so many
have of this place starts to bother people - not surprisingly. There are no
doubt people in the government and elsewhere who take a stern moral take on
all this, but most people would probably be happy to just see the excesses cleaned
up a bit...